As an artist, campaigns with a positive social impact are always very appealing to me. PBJS in Seattle called me several months back about this campaign for The Nature Conservancy, highlighting the First Stewards Symposium in Washington DC, which takes place next month. This is the first national climate change symposium dedicated to addressing how climate change impacts coastal indigenous people.

I got to work with some great people on this project, CD Peter Gaucys, ACD Brandon Hilliard, and AD Vinny Pacheco. In one of our meetings about creative for this shoot, someone brought up how the only photographs we associate with American Indians are old and quite dated. Those old black and white prints you see in a museum. This was an opportunity to create 3 great portraits of modern American Indians surrounding a really important set of issues. I am really proud of how these portraits turned out, and I am excited to see what comes from the symposium next month.

Below is an excerpt taken from the First Stewards website which outlines the purpose of this symposium. What a fantastic project to be a part of!

“This first-of-its-kind national event examines the impact of climate change on indigenous coastal cultures. The symposium will bring together as many as 300 coastal indigenous tribal elders, leaders, scientists, witnesses, and other scientists and policy leaders from around the nation to discuss traditional ecological knowledge and what it can teach us about past, present, and future adaptation to climate change. Five regional panels of tribal leaders and tribal and Western scientists will examine how native people and their cultures have adapted to climate change for hundreds to thousands of years, and what their future — and that of the nation — may hold as the impacts of climate change continue.”